At least 35 killed in Iraq unrest

At least 35 people have been killed and upto 100 injured in a wave of bombings and street battles between US troops and insurgents across Iraq, as the prime minister announced a crackdown on terror.

Amid the violence, one Palestinian television journalist was killed as he was giving a live report about the clashes taking place in Baghdad.

Residents of his home town in the West Bank watched in horror as Mazen al-Tomaisi, who worked for Saudi television Akhbariya and for the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, went down.

Tomaisi, 28, was killed when a US helicopter fired missiles on a mob which had gathered round a US tank in Baghdad that had been set ablaze in a car bomb attack, one of a string of bombings across the capital.

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As the fighting continued, persistent hostage crisis grinded on as militants threatened to kill two Italian women captives, ordering Rome to recall its troops from Iraq within 24 hours, in a purported statement posted on an Islamist website.

Today's unrest in Sunni Muslim troublespots came a day after US troops commemorated the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks, blamed on Al Qa'eda, which led the way to a new era of pre-emptive war.

Earlier, a man tried to drive a car rigged with explosives into the compound of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, but the vehicle failed to explode.

A spokeman for the US military confirmed there had been an attempt to breach the outer perimeter of the jail which is at the centre of an inquiry into prisoner abuse by American soldiers. He said that there were no injuries after the makeshift bomb stashed inside the car failed to detonate.

The spokesman was unable to say whether US soldiers opened fire on the person driving the vehicle, or provide any further details.